Episode 123 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on January 15, 1992 and titled Goku's Special Technique in Funimation's dub, clears up the last mysteries about Goku's return and opens the three-year wait for the androids. The hero explains how he survived Namek and shows off a brand-new skill, Instant Transmission. Then the group splits up, and everyone starts training in their own way.
Summary
Goku explains how he got away. Frieza's ship, his planned escape route, refused to take off and was sliding into the lava; through a window he spotted one of the Ginyu Force's pods, scrambled into it and left Namek moments before the explosion, on a random course. Unconscious, he crash-landed on the planet Yardrat, whose inhabitants nursed him back to health, gave him their clothes and taught him a special technique: Instant Transmission, which lets him appear anywhere in an instant by locking onto someone's energy. To prove it, Goku vanishes and reappears a second later holding Master Roshi's sunglasses, swiped from Kame House.
Back to the androids. Bulma offers the obvious solution: find Dr. Gero now and stop him before he finishes his creations. Goku and the others want none of it, eager to test themselves against such powerful foes, and Bulma calls them all crazy. Piccolo urges everyone to take training seriously; Vegeta vows to fight but warns Goku that once the androids are dealt with, the two of them will settle their score, then flies off. Goku lets slip a good-luck wish to Bulma about a baby, and Yamcha misunderstands.
At Capsule Corporation, Vegeta demands that Dr. Brief build him a high-gravity room. On Mount Paozu, Goku has to face Chi-Chi, furious about his long absence and against sending Gohan into battle; in the end she gives in, as long as her son keeps up with his studies. Training begins: Goku, Gohan and Piccolo in the snowy mountains, Tien and Chiaotzu in the wasteland, Krillin at Kame House, Yamcha at the gym.
Our take
The episode adapts the first thirteen pages of chapter 336, with one valuable addition: in the manga Goku only describes his escape from Namek and his landing on Yardrat, while the anime shows it in a flashback. The closing training montage is also anime-only, and it sets up the next episode, 124, a filler devoted to these three years.
Instant Transmission is the real star. It starts as a gag, Roshi's stolen sunglasses, but it will become one of Goku's decisive weapons in the arcs to come. The Japanese title is all about it: "Watch my Instant Transmission!"
The debate over Gero deserves attention. Bulma is right, and the audience knows it: cutting the problem off at the root would be the sensible choice. But these are fighters, and Toriyama plays that for irony. In the Japanese version Vegeta even threatens Bulma if she interferes, while Goku finds it unfair to attack someone who hasn't done anything wrong yet; the English dub softened both lines. It is a choice that will weigh on the rest of the saga.
Trivia
- It adapts pages 1-13 of chapter 336. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, with animation direction by Masayuki Uchiyama, it drew a 24.3% share.
- Counting the movies and the original series, it marks Krillin's 200th appearance; only Goku and Bulma had reached that milestone before him.
- It is the second time Goku steals Roshi's sunglasses, the first being his fight with Tien in the original Dragon Ball.
- It is the first episode of Ocean Productions' alternate English dub, often called the "Westwood dub", which aired from April 2, 2001 in the UK and later in Canada.
Did you know? In Funimation's dub, Goku claims he was only joking when he says he forgot the details of the androids' arrival. In Japanese, he genuinely forgot.